[Letter from J.B. Webb to Thomas Crofton Croker regarding Webb's recent correspondence with the Earl of Rosse in relation to the identity of Thomas Foster's executors and his certainty that Crofton Croker possesses this information, with a rough reply from Crofton Croker on the second page]

Title Translation

Description

Handwritten two-page letter in which J.B. Webb states that he has been in contact with the Earl of Rosse, who has assured him that he is not Thomas Foster's executor. He goes on to state his certainty that Crofton Croker knows the identity of the executors and that he will take further steps is Crofton Croker is not willing to impart the information. In his rough reply, dated 26th March 1827, Crofton Croker repeats that he does not know the identity of the executors.

Collection

Crofton Croker Album

Date

24th March 1827

Physical Description

25.0 x 19.9 cm.

Media

Ink on paper

Provenance

Purchased by National Gallery of Ireland from a private collector in London in 2003.

Notes

Access

By appointment only

Rights

National Gallery of Ireland

Item Type

Location

CSIA

Store

Publication Info.

Sir,
Agreeably to your instructions I applied to Lord Rosse, whose reply is, that he is not an executor.
Enclosed you have a copy of your letter to W. [Keston], from which it appears that you are acquainted with the names of the executors, you will therefore oblige me by giving their addresses, if not, I must state the case by public advertisement, your early response will convey a favor on,
Sir,
Your [most humble Servant]
J.B. Webb

Webb's Hotel,
Piccadilly,
12th March 1827

[Rough reply from Crofton Croker to J.B. Webb]

26th March 1827

Sir,
In reply to your letter of Saturday, I have again only to state that I am ignorant of the names of the executors of the late Mr. Foster, and must decline any further communication with you on the subject,
I am Sir,
Your humble servant,
J.C.C.

In 1844, the Cork-born antiquarian Thomas Crofton Croker acquired at auction a sketchbook that had belonged to Henry Perronet Briggs, his artist friend who had died a short period earlier. At the time of purchase, the album contained just ten studies by Briggs of costume details after the Dutch artist Jacques de Gheyn (1565-1629). Crofton Croker began to fill the empty pages with details of Briggs' exhibition history. The list continues uninterrupted until 1826 at which point Crofton Croker records the death of Thomas Foster, a mutual friend of his and Briggs. Crofton Croker continues the list, with occasional annotations, up to 1844, but then turns his attention almost exclusively to Foster. The album contains from that point extended notes by Crofton Croker, many of which draw on or quote from the testimony of other friends, on Foster's suicide and its immediate consequences, along with a large quantity of artworks, letters and other other ephemera relating to Foster. The album was discovered in Oxford in 2002 and acquired by the Centre for the Study of Irish Art the following year.